Erika Nordby

Erika and her mother, 26-year-old Leyla Nordby, were spending the night of 22/23 February 2001 at a friend's home in Edmonton.^[1] Leyla and an unnamed friend had been out earlier in the night, leaving a relative of the friend to babysit. When the two returned to the home, the babysitter left through the back door, which had a broken latch.^[2] In the early hours of the morning, 13-month-old Erika left the house alone wearing only a diaper.^[3] The temperature outside was approximately −24 °C (−11 °F).^[4] As the girl customarily had a bottle around 2 am, her mother became concerned when she awoke at 3 am and Erika was not beside her in bed. Leyla found her in a snowbank shortly thereafter by following footprints leading away from the back door.^[2] She brought Erika inside and called an ambulance, and attempted CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but was unsuccessful. Paramedics were unable to intubate at the scene due to Erika's condition.^[2] Erika was taken to Stollery Children's Health Centre. Leyla was detained by police for five hours on suspicion of child neglect, after which she went to the hospital.^[2]

Upon her arrival at Stollery, Erika was considered to be clinically dead: she had been without a pulse for approximately two hours.^[2][3] She had no vital signs and had a core body temperature of about 16 °C (61 °F). This compares to a normal body temperature of 37 °C (99 °F);^[4] the lowest survived human body temperature resulting from accidental (not medically controlled) hypothermia was 13.7 °C (56.7 °F).^[5]

Erika's heart resumed beating after she was placed under a warming blanket.^[4] Doctors suggested the cold had placed her into a hibernation-like state, protecting her body from serious damage.^[4] There were initially suggestions that parts of her hands or feet might need to be amputated because of damage from frostbite,^[3] but this was later considered unnecessary.^[4] Erika required skin grafts on her foot and physiotherapy to enable her to walk again.^[6]